City poised to pay $7.4 million in drunken Gold Coast crash

Chicago aldermen are poised to approve a $7.4 million settlement to a woman severely injured when a drunken city worker plowed his city pickup truck into a crowd on a Gold Coast sidewalk.

Nanny Jennifer Anton was pushing a stroller carrying a 20-month-old girl and shoved the child out of harm's way before she was hit in the May 2011 crash. The City Council Finance Committee was set to discuss the proposed settlement with Anton late Monday afternoon.

Dwight Washington, the city worker who was driving, is serving a nine-year prison term after pleading guilty to four counts of aggravated driving under the influence of alcohol.

The full City Council will consider the payment to Anton Wednesday. It’s just the latest financial fallout for the city from the Washington case.

In 2012, the city paid $6.25 million to Richard Chang, who was pinned under the truck, and his wife, Leeann, who suffered less severe injuries. Richard Chang suffered brain injuries in the incident, officials said at the time. And Stephen Dewart, who also was struck by the truck driven by Washington, was paid $2.4 million by the city.

An open bottle of brandy was found stuck under the gas pedal in the city truck driven by Washington, whose blood-alcohol level was measured after the crash at 0.183 percent, more than twice the legal limit.